GunsAmerica Product Reviews – Rifles

I can’t say that the Thompson Center Dimension rifle is the biggest story at SHOT Show 2012, but it is definitely the most interesting. Being from New Hampshire myself, I was an early Thompson Center customer (I had a White Mountain Carbine) and have been a fan since. In fact one of the early articles on the GunsAmerica Blog was about out of the box MOA guns, and both the TC Venture and Icon made MOA easily, and they are both great values in a deer rifle.

By far the most famous product of Thompson Center is the line of pistols known as the Contender, then later the Encore and G2 Contender. If you are new to shooting sports, the Contender pistol series is a modular system that utilizes one universal frame and interchangeable barrels and forends for varying calibers. You buy one Contender, and several, or even dozens, of barrels, from .17 Hornet to .416 Rigby in the later versions. Several calibers were invented specifically for the Thompson Contender series, including the .30TC and numerous wildcats. A whole cottage industry of making Contender barrels sprung up over the years, based on the overwhelming success of the Thompson Contender. For the hobby shooter, there has never been a finer instrument to nerd out on with your reloading press and bench rest.

Fast forward to now, since TC was bought by Smith & Wesson, and a lot of us TC fans out there have been wondering what would become of our old friend, especially since the plant in Exeter, New Hampshire was closed last year. Smith & Wesson is a public company, so what the gun nerds think doesn’t always count when you boil everything down to nuts and bolts shareholder profits.

So it is with gratitude to the folks at Smith & Wesson that I say, Thompson Center is charging forward with a completely new, and revolutionary rifle system called the Dimension. It has been two years in the works and the Dimension made its debut today at Media Day at the Range, SHOT Show 2012. Take a look through the pictures here, and I will try to explain how it works to the best of my ability.

When most people think of the classic deer rifle, they think of the lever action 30-30. Very few avid gunners don’t have one, yet this is a gun that is not the most powerful, not the most accurate, not the most quick shooting, and not the most reliable. For all the new gun owners, shooters and hunters that have come into the gun world over the last few years, you just have to re-ask the question, “why on earth would I ever want a lever action 30-30?” Is it just sentimental value in an old time cartridge that keeps the 30-30 going, or is there something there?

Guns are different from most things except maybe cars and guitars in that they have an “aura” about them. You won’t often see a rich businessman driving a Honda CRX “tuner” to the office, and you certainly shouldn’t play Ozzy songs on a Fender Telecaster, not that you can’t. Likewise, a lot of people feel weird stomping around the woods with an AR-15. It isn’t that the AR isn’t capable of taking a deer, a hog, or a coyote. It just doesn’t feel right.

The same thing goes for a high-powered bolt gun. In the thick woods of New England, Pennsylvania and other popular hunting grounds, you can feel like you are overdoing it with a high powered rifle. Most shots are under 100 yards and you don’t need all that power for a deer. For many hunters, a lever action 30-30 is “just right,” and it makes you feel like rough and tumble cowboy, which is always cool for a gun guy.

That is why there are literally millions of 30-30s are out there hunting this season, and one that has become very popular is the Mossberg 464. It is made in America by Americans, and we found it to be as accurate as most bolt guns for the first five shots in a cold gun. The point of balance on the 464 is right in the middle of the receiver, exactly where you want it to be for walking around the woods for hours, and right in the middle of a mounted normal length rifle scope, so it retains the balance. If you look at the 464, it looks like a Winchester Model 94, the most classic of all leverguns. But some of the features inside are much more like the Marlin 336, which is the other US made 30-30 still available today. The 464 is smoother than the 94, yet feels more like one than it does the Marlin.

Hornady revolutionized the 30-30 in 2007 with the introduction of their LeverEvolution ammunition. Prior to this, all traditional leverguns with tubular magazines had to use flat pointed bullets. Otherwise the tip of the bullet in the magazine would impact the primer of the round in front of it, setting it off inside the magazine and blowing a hole out of the side of your gun. LeverEvolution utilizes an aerodynamic spitzer type bullet with a polymer tip, so that they don’t set off the primer. They really actually work, and since the more than 4 years that have passed since their introduction, the LeverEvolution ammo has taken over the market for 30-30 deer rifles.

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As the 2012 SHOT Show approaches, one of the guns that didn’t get as much attention as it should have from this past year’s show was the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle. If you haven’t seen this gun, it is based on a theoretical design from a shooting legend, Colonel Jeff Cooper, who started the Gunsite Academy. The premise of the gun is a “one gun solution, ” with a spec that it has to be a .30 caliber with an effective kill power on a man sized target out to the effective range of the shooter, and that is has to be short , light, and handy. This isn’t the first “Scout Rifle” design to hit the market, and Col. Cooper was involved with a Steyr project back in the day that is still sold today. But for the money, Ruger definitely has a very strong offering, and has nailed the Scout concept at an affordable price, MSRP $995.

Chambered in .308 Winchester, the 16.5″ barreled Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle comes in at 7 lbs. empty and is 38″ long. This is basically to the spec of Col. Cooper, and this is with a wood, not plastic stock. The length of pull is adjustable with stock inserts from 12.75 inches to 14.25 inches, so it fits all sizes of shooters and can be adapted to body armor. Gunsite has a method of training shooters where length of pull is crucial, and this rifle is made to help you “settle into it.” I think that is the reasoning behind the wood composite stock as opposed to plastic. Laminated wood looks a little funny, but it is just as durable and weatherproof as plastic, and it is only about a half a pound heavier. The fine checkering on the beefy feeling forend and handgrip make you feel good with the gun, like it was made for you, and the weight distribution of the wood also just “feels right,” which is what the designers at Ruger and Gunsite were going for.

When you see the profile of this new Ruger Scout collaboration, a couple things immediately stick out. One is the ten round removable box magazine. To my knowledge there are no other bolt rifles in this price range that even have a box magazine. You are stuck with 3 or 4 rounds in the mag. The Scout also has a forward optics rail, for a special type of scope called, coincidentally, a Scout Scope. The Scout Rifle concept is 50 years old and the methodology of the Scout has been applied to experimental rifles for two generations now, using everything from standard Remington, Winchester and Ruger actions, to surplus Mosin-Nagants and Mausers. The forward mounted Scout Scope has what is called a “long eye relief.” That means you can see a full field with the scope 8 or 9 inches away from your eye. These scopes are also used on pistols to some degree by handgun hunters and long range target shooters.

The forward mounted scope allows you to take advantage of the optic, while retaining your peripheral vision for optimum situational awareness. It takes some getting used to, but most major optic companies make a Scout Scope model, and once you get used to it, the advantage is clear. In an unknown situation with nobody but you covering your back you don’t want your eye locked into a normal scope. Col. Cooper had this forward mount in his spec, long before long eye relief scopes were popular, and he was definitely on to something. The respect that his name commands in the gun world is well deserved. Most of us don’t have the ability to go out to Gunsite to train, but the expertise there has given us what amounts to the right tool for the job.

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Zombies may not be taking over America yet, but in the world of shooting sports, 3-Gun competitions for sure already are. You can’t talk about shooting these days without hearing about the popularity of 3-Gun. STAG Arms, a sponsor of the TV show 3-Gun Nation, hopes to capture the rifle part of the 3 Gun market with a new rifle created specifically for competition in 3-Gun events. It is called the STAG Arms 3G, MSRP $1,495. All of the competitors in the finals of 3-Gun Nation this year, being held in Las Vegas next week, will be shooting the STAG Arms 3G, and I am pretty sure all of the competitors are going to ask to keep them or buy them after the event. It is a really nice gun.

The 3G is an 18″ barreled AR-15 with about all the bells and whistles you could want for 3-Gun and a lot more. It comes standard with a 15″ Sampson free floating handguard, a Magpull ACS stock and MOE handgrip, and a Geissele Super 3-Gun trigger created specifically for 3-Gun competition. The gas system is the full rifle length version, not the shorter M4 version. This makes for a lot less felt recoil and very smooth controllability shot to shot. STAG also makes one of the few reliable .22 conversion kits for the AR, and it works flawlessly in this new 3G.

I guess the question is, how many people would buy a dedicated gun for 3-Gun? The STAG 3G would answer that question,” it doesn’t matter. ” The 3G is a formidable battle rifle with almost perfect balance. The twist on the gun is 1 in 8,” which is capable of stabilizing a wide range of bullet types, and the 18″ barrel turns a corner as fast as a 16″ M4, but with a better gas system and more velocity. You also couldn’t ask for a better stock and hand filling grip than the Magpull product. STAG really didn’t skimp on this rifle and they made some important add-on choices that you may not have gotten as right forced to make the choices yourself.

I personally find quad rails annoying, even with too-fat rail covers. This smart Samson handguard comes with 3 short rail sections to mount whatever you like on the gun. It makes for a comfortable, hand sized forward grip and the flexibility to add whatever you like. You can see from the pictures I like the stumpy UTG/Leapers forward vertical grip, and I was able to mount this in less than five minutes. What I like about it most is that you don’t need a special AR wrench to take the handguard off. It utilizes a collar and two Allen screws, and slides off with little or no effort. For ease of use the Samson wins hands down.

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Marching to the beat of your own drummer can be a challenge in the gun world. But over and over again, Kel-Tec CNC, the company we all know for their tiny extremely affordable and reliable pocket pistols, keeps showing up with a new beat, and the guns are some of the most interesting in the entire shooting world.

The Sub 2000 is a folding pistol-caliber polymer carbine, and that is about where standard descriptions run out of gas. At first glance you may try to compare it to a gun you already know, but quickly you realize that it is unlike any other gun you know.

You find yourself saying, “It’s kind of like a … um, no, it’s kind of like nothing.”

The Sub-2000 cocks in the rear, and all of the moving parts of the gun are located in the rear. If you look in the pictures, that whole front barrel assembly swings up from a release in the trigger guard and the entire gun effectively folds in half. It is pretty much a totally unique firearm.

At an MSRP of $409 and a street price well under $400, the Sub-2000 is loaded with features that you wouldn’t expect in such an inexpensive gun. It takes Glock 17 mags in the standard model, but Kel-Tec is also shipping them in Glock 19, Smith & Wesson 59 type, Beretta 92 & 96, and Sig 226 configurations, and the gun is available in both 9mm and .40S&W. The plastic rear sight automatically flips up when you deploy the front of the rifle, and the front sight is a completely adjustable fiber optic. The barrel is 16″, and the weight is only slightly more than a pistol at 4lbs. It fold down to 16″ long.

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Many of us long for the days when technology didn’t rule our lives, yet we love the convenience of it. It’s the same thing with special muzzleloader seasons for whitetail. The antiquity of the technology is romantic, but better ballistics, better sights, and easier and more consistent components can make a hunt more likely to put a rack on the wall and fill a freezer with meat. The precious time we manage to actually get out into the woods in our busy lives is valuable, and going into the woods with a better gun during muzzleloader season has become the norm instead of the exception.
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As battle rifles go, probably the most misunderstood of them all is the AR-10.  It almost beat the M-14 in replacing the M1 Garand, and its design was actually copied for the AR-15.  Made by Armalite in 1956, when the company was owned by Fairchild Aviation and Eugene Stoner worked there, the Armalite AR-10 has a long and storied history. Fidel Castro even bought some. Today’s AR-10, brought back to life by Armalite Inc., is a more mature rifle than the guns of the  ‘50s and ‘60s. Read More…

Cool new guns always do well with the early adopter crowd, but seldom does a new firearm design last and thrive the way the KRISS Vector has since its introduction in 2007. You could not turn on the Discovery Channel back then without seeing the episode of Future Weapons that featured the KRISS. Now here we are in the future four years later, and the KRISS Vector has come into full consumer production, and it is again featured on TV. The Military Channel has named it the best close quarters combat weapon.

If you haven’t seen the KRISS on TV, it is truly a novel firearm. The patents are not just applied for, they are awarded. Compared to other pistol caliber carbines and rifles, the KRISS is just simply different. The bolt, upon firing, travels back and downwards, into the handle, and the recoil is absorbed in a spring in that downward position. The result is significantly reduced felt recoil and muzzle climb.

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